Next-Gen Pixel Art - Legacy Devlog #20

In this indie game devlog™, we explore an interesting technique of rendering pixel art games. It's a fusion between the traditional upscaling and normal rendering that comes with some cool benefits.
=== Support the channel ===
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/ aarthificial
0:00 Introduction
1:38 Explanation
3:05 Final thoughts
Games at the beginning (left to right, top to bottom):
Deltarune
Terraria
OneShot
Stardew Valley
Hyper Light Drifter
Celeste
Thanks so much for watching!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much for all the nice comments, you are amazing! FAQ *Will you release this Renderer?* Yes! Unfortunately not in the nearest feature. The main reason is time. For those of you who are new here: I'm working full time while getting my degree while developing Astortion and there are only so many hours in a day :( *Is this a new technique?* Yes and no. I was so focused on the whole parallax thing that I didn't realize applying it to a single layer was a technique on its own. And that it had been used in many different games already. *How did you get the idea?* At first, I simply wanted to pixelate 3D objects. 3D objects pixelated in perspective flicker a lot when moving. I was able to solve that for orthographic projection though. The problem with perspective is that objects at different distances appear to be moving at different speeds. To solve that I would need to pixelate each distance separately. That's not easily doable with 3D objects. But in classical 2D parallax, objects are already nicely grouped by the distance from the camera. And then it clicked. *How did you implement that?* It's a custom renderer for Unity's Universal Render Pipeline, designed after the built-in 2D Renderer.

[@eduardomunhoz1581]

I see you're using unity, once it's released, will it be able to work in godot?

[@aarthificial]

Unfortunately no. It should be possible to implement this in any engine, but this implementation is specifically for Unity :(

[@paille-boy]

KZbin recommandations bring me here and I'm curious : what aps you are using for the old version of programming?

[@gaystalkinkiller2427]

Ur ga3

[@NeZversSounds]

@@eduardomunhoz1581 Follow Nesi, he should be releasing a tutorial for Godot soon-ish.

[@SuperZeve]

We had RETRO STYLE then we got the MODERN STYLE And now for the first time ever: FUTURE STYLE

[@AgnisNeZvers]

hybrid

[@ls200076]

@@AgnisNeZvers future style

[@AgnisNeZvers]

@@ls200076 That implies that there is something new but this is a combination of existing methods. Hence - Hybrid Style.

[@MakenaForest]

@@AgnisNeZvers youre correct in that you stated a fact, but you are also wrong as you missed the entire point of dubbing it future style

[@Broockle]

Aarthificial Style?

[@WuchtaArt]

My man just solved the biggest problem in pixelart game history and it only took him less than 4 minutes to explain it. You are incredible sir

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much, as usual!

[@huneebajer1098]

Noce

[@commenturthegreat2915]

I mean it's not a new invention by a long shot, but it does produce some very nice results.

[@aarthificial]

Do you, by any chance, know any games that use this technique or some article describing it? I was doing some research before making this video and couldn't find anything. Otherwise I would have mentioned them :(

[@t3ssel8r]

@@aarthificial don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure hyper light drifter had fullscreen pixel res with subpixel scrolling. Celeste also allows the player sprite to distort in non-pixel ways (while jumping), while maintaining a regular pixel grid for the background. I still think what you did with the parallax layers is quite original though, but maybe this is not so obvious to people not working on similar technologies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@NICK....]

Great presentation: ✓ Short and informative: ✓ Full CC coverage: ✓ This channel deserves 10 times the attention it's getting

[@MythicLegionDev]

Now that’s pretty epic

[@fl0837]

Now that's pretty epic

[@Nnm26]

146k subs for just 2 videos? Wtf?

[@VoiceChattin]

@@Nnm26 his second video blew up. And it was one of the highest quality video I've seen

[@Nnm26]

@@VoiceChattin I know, but the fact that both videos got reconmended to everyone without any popular keywords is kinda insane to me, not to mention people clicking on it. Kinda sad that he decided not to make more tho.

[@VoiceChattin]

@@Nnm26 I personally think that KZbin recommended his videos is because everyone who watches them watch till the end meaning a ton of engagement

[@eftorq]

This reminds me of how they solved similar issues for Into The Spiderverse. Characters walk at a different framerate and objects need to work together. They chose a different soloution, as it's a full 3d movie. But the out of the box thinking is similar. Huge respect for this achievement!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much!

[@floatingblaze8405]

This is one of the coolest and most original and creative things I've ever seen. Astonishing work, as always!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks!!

[@prantare]

We at Pugstorm used this rendering approach in our game Radical Rabbit Stew :) Pugstorm is now using it for real-time indirect lighting, shadows, etcetera. It is a very neat approach to pixel perfect rendering. There are some other games out there that use it, like Enter the Gungeon.

[@aarthificial]

@@prantare Awesome! Can I read about it in more detail somewhere? I'd love to know how you've approached this

[@prantare]

@@aarthificial I personally haven't written about it anywhere, but it is exactly what you do in this video. It is typically called "subpixel perfect rendering" in the game dev community though!

[@novafx3744]

@@prantare Please do a writeup or blog post on this at some point, this is a technique that really needs to be spread in the Unity2d community. It's something I've looked into so much but could never find any info on.

[@dospuntospe]

I'm making a custom engine in c++ for a tiny platformer game and just came to say, this was a revelation. I had so many headaches trying to make the camera smooth (I'm rendering in a very low resolution) and this just fixed it! I managed to implement it all in opengl today and it works perfectly, thank you so so much for the idea! Also, keep up with the game, it is an awesome concept and every video is very interesting. Have a beautiful day!

[@aarthificial]

That's so awesome! Thank you and best of luck with your game!

[@Tiny.Shiny.Things]

You're living in 2049 with that renderer while we stuck out here in 2021 with our peasant pixels

[@_kett2164]

Holy crap this is brilliant! Its like the best of both worlds, I will 100% use this if you end up making it public

[@aarthificial]

Thank you! I'd love to do that but it will probably have to wait till Astortion is finished

[@_kett2164]

@@aarthificial good point! I would definitely keep it closed since its such a god tier renderer It definitely makes Astortion stand out more than it already does

[@aarthificial]

@@_kett2164 Oh no, I didn't mean it like that. It's more about the fact that the time necessary to extract and maintain this renderer would negatively impact the development of Astortion. I've made this video cuz I'd love more people to use this technique

[@_kett2164]

​@@aarthificial OHH I see! I can definitely see this as the new standard for modern pixel art games

[@4Bakers]

0:37 Fun fact: In Undertale's Snowdin Forest, there's a golf-like minigame with a snowball that blatantly breaks the pixel grid, designed to be a commentary on the two pixel art styles.

[@TheCrafsMan]

Your style is fantastic! I really like how you think, and how you present information. Excellent.

[@AstonishedByTheLackOfCake]

man, this devlog is absolutely amazing, got this video randomly recommended by the algorithm gods and caused me to immediately binge the whole thing from the start the aesthetic you found here is probably among the best game pixel art I've come across ever and the fact that you actually go in depth when discussing design patterns and implementation really sets this series apart from other devlogs also just really goddamn fucking based of you to release stuff you developed along the way as standalone tools for entirely free of charge I wish you all the best with developing this game, and am truly excited to play it once it ends up being all finished and stuff

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much! It means a world 🖤

[@pro_rookie_gamedev]

Same XD

[@Jejkobbb]

I very much enjoyed this video

[@aarthificial]

Glad to hear that!

[@studioINTEGRAND]

AAA DEVS HATE HIM --> see how he revolutionized the pixel art world with ONE SIMPLE TRICK! god damn dude

[@JonMcCartyII]

This comment deserves a hundred more likes, and this video a thousand.

[@MajatekYT]

Those lightshafts though, my gosh. I think they look even better because they're aligned to a pixel grid while the camera moves smoothly so that light has a nice chunky solid feel to it.

[@aarthificial]

Thanks! They were a nightmare. Had to literally rewrite the entire renderer for them to work. Definitely worth it though 🖤

[@luisfonseca2086]

Amazing video, love how you bring these backend systems that usually get overlooked to the foregroud with these devlogs!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks!

[@samhblackmore]

That moment when the floor bends and remains perfectly pixelated... So satisfying

[@ThatGuySquippy]

I am by no means a pixel artist or game designer, but this has me hyped for the future of pixel art games.

[@sinus4784]

i had an idea like this once but then after i had that idea i thought "eh, I'm lazy imma just go the low-resolution route."

[@abdullahbinjs2236]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH I AM CHOKING UP WITH EXCITEMENT LIKE OMG, you have basically solved my biggest pet peeve with pixelated art styles. Thanks so much for single-handedly refining an artform.

[@MMMercia]

Here's a comment to feed the algorythm, because this stuff deserves more views.

[@t3ssel8r]

very very cool! one of the most jarring things about side-scroller low-res games is the need to throw away subpixel motion, but having each parallax layer track its own subpixel offset seems like it works great and looks great.

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much! Also, love your work! It's a huge inspiration to me

[@t3ssel8r]

@@aarthificial oh that's great :)

[@KevinFrost]

IDK why KZbin recommended this to me, but I am really glad it did.

[@RugbugRedfern]

So beautiful! This is amazing, I hope more games use this technique

[@bamfyu]

I haven't clicked this fast EVER

[@moistairpods2846]

Just finished binging your devlogs and I want to make sure you know that you are doing A LOT right rn. Haven't seen much of your code, but I can tell from your videos that your put a lot of thought into your architecture and you are making great design decisions. I see a similar pattern for gameplay, especially in the earlier videos. You've got a really good feel for what works and what doesn't. Your editing style is really refreshing. I love watching you build tools for yourself and showcasing them in really neat ways. So many other yt game devs focus too much on cramming features and "progress" into every devlog, but you never see them work out their architecture and it scares me sometimes. Keep it up dude. I think a lot of your best traits are things that viewers inexperienced with game/software development might not fully appreciate, but your audience is definitely out here.

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much, it means a lot!

[@Codeer]

That's amazing! Super interesting technique! Your game also looks really good!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much, it means a lot!

[@zonkle]

Nice. This is a weird coincidence, because I recently implemented basically the exact same thing in my engine, for the same reasons.

[@georgmethner9886]

Hey trying the same thing... any way to contact you? Maybe discord?

[@zonkle]

@@georgmethner9886 My implementation is with OpenGL. It's actually not very complicated. Basically, all the things that need to be rendered at low res should be rendered to a low resolution texture that is then drawn along with everything else at full resolution. It just needs to be offset based on the difference in the camera position and the camera position rounded to the low res, so it appears in the correct position. Sorry for the very quick explanation. I'm not currently using this feature. I will try to help if you have more questions.

[@georgmethner9886]

@@zonkle hmm that sadly doesnt help a lot. The problem im facing atm is rather resizing the screen texture

[@EVILBUNNY28]

I saw this video in my recommended and watched the first minute and immediately knew I wanted to watched the whole series... So I just binged it. All of it. And I am so glad I did. I'm now subscribed and cannot wait for more updates!

[@aarthificial]

Glad you liked the videos!

[@andrewglick6279]

This looks gorgeous. I really appreciate that you're able to put so much effort into the production of such a short and concise video.

[@AndreasHontzia]

I saw the intro and knew exactly, where you were heading. I love it! As a fan of old school pixel art and the fresh new ideas of retro art, I can finally stitch my torn heart. This will enable the nostalgic flair to be transported into the present and future! Thank you!

[@TeoPG]

This is impressive. Keep up the great work!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks! I'll do my best

[@CSGhostAnimation]

Hey-- what do you think about hexagonal pixels?

[@brunoabano6355]

That is so cool, keep the good work, I'll always be watching!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much!

[@ianfield17]

I've only watched 2 of your videos, but I'm hooked! You have so many cool ideas, I'm subscribing!

[@DeiveEx]

Like many people here, your video was just reccomended to me and just binge watched the whole series because it's so interesting! Good work, man, there are some pretty intereseting stuff, and I like how you make lots of tools for your game. You just won a new subscriber, looking forward to see else you're planning!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much and welcome aboard!

[@commenturthegreat2915]

I've been using this combination of styles for a while now but your implementation is definitely better than mine, nice work!

[@baerrach]

Thank you for sharing this stuff on the internet. It's great to see the problems and your thought processes to solve them.

[@anesgamer5180]

I am subscribing, you're one of the few developers that sound like actualy they know what they're doing.

[@MisterPotatoHands]

I love it! The smooth scrolling solution reminds me a lot of how it was done on the Commodore 64 (and maybe elsewhere?). From memory, your tiles (the reprogrammed character set) were 8x8 pixels, and to do coarse scrolling you ultimately had to copy the entire screen across. But to do that scrolling smoothly there were registers in the graphics chip which could offset all the tiles by 1 to 8 pixels (one for horizontal and one for vertical). Seeing the results at 2:05 was a nostalgia trip: reminded me a lot of messing with that and trying to get smooth-scrolling working :)

[@aarthificial]

Thanks for sharing that! I'm too young to remember Commodore but the technique seems fascinating

[@tiredko-hi-]

Wait this technique isn't that costly. That's mind blowing.

[@Junivieve]

THIS IS SO SICK! I just binge-watched a year of devlogs, you're genuine, share your passion admit mistakes and actually try and better the community as a whole keep up the amazing work dude!

[@aarthificial]

Thank you so much! You literally made my week :)

[@chekote]

I love these short technical videos. Your ability to quickly explain something in such a clear and concise manner is a gift.

[@DArK-xj8lr]

He took pixel art style to next level!!! Lets gooooooo

[@stevedoetsch]

1:28 Imma rewatch that dramatic moment

[@SariusxX]

Your new lighting reminds me of "The Last Night". Love what you do man, always so happy to see more!

[@johnjackson9767]

You gave me the final piece I needed for wrapping my head around smooth camera movement with upscaled render targets. Fantastic video, sharing it now with my discord.

[@cookieBadger]

I would have straight up kept watching the cheesy documentary version at 1:30 forever haha

[@ZiplawDev]

man i dont have many people with the bell hit but you surely deserve it

[@wub9044]

It's funny that you mention it. I was using a very similar method of moving the camera back when I used to make flash animations years ago.

[@JorgeLIglesias]

Dude this is amazing! Like how is a 4 min video so informative... Thanks!

[@OreganoDev]

This is amazing!!!!

[@hippityhop9522]

This kind of pixelart effect was used in Dead Cells but this looks more flexible. I just wonder how does it look with more detailed textures while in movement.

[@aarthificial]

I've never played Dead Cells, but I did analyze some footage of it before making this video. I guess that they do the same thing but for the entire screen. That's why the background layers still appear to be snapping to the grid, like the trees here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y56oi4aGeKZ4qpo

[@aleks3449]

Straight to the point, no bs, amazing content and info!! Subscribed))

[@michaeltaylor9997]

Jaw dropping. This could lead to a new era of pixel art games.

[@GuyFromNet]

This is amazing. I was always thinking about combining these styles, but never accomplished to do so. Can you provide more technical information on how to achieve this in the future video?

[@aarthificial]

Thanks! Yes, I'll definitely share some more info once it's finished

[@qu765]

My preference in pixel art is: where the only non-pixel perfect legal transformations of pixel art are transformations, and integer-scaling. You a managing to make a thing that does that procedurally, good job!

[@__________.]

Genius idea really. Also the light effect at 3:02 looks insane.

[@aarthificial]

Thanks!

[@charlz-darvin]

Thank you for the English subtitles. I don't have enough practice to easily recognize voice and subtitles help a lot.

[@dandyandroid]

I love this. Normalize pixel perfection!!!!!! Adobe should hire u to fix their software (okay, maybe that's too ambitious for one guy, lol). Great job

[@bruhman8495]

Dope as hell, good luck in further endeavours

[@XtremeAffeX]

this is exactly what I thought was missing in a lot of pixel art games! I was always a fan of the retro style and feel like modern shading dynamics would work so well. you deserve more subs

[@dawdledev]

Wow, this is so gorgeous! I can't wait to see how you leverage this!

[@aggressiveflyingpizza7072]

this is amazing, awesome and mindblowing work!

[@serrion1394]

Hiho! I just binged your complete devlog series up until now! Completly blown away by your work! Gameplay looks briliant, puzzles you can make with what you have shown super interesting and the artstyle feels immersiv!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much, it means a world to me!

[@mikhailselyuzhenkov7450]

Nice Devlog, I watched it all. It helped me to get some ideas for games I make right now, hopefully your game will be finished. Good Luck!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks and good luck to you too!

[@mikhailselyuzhenkov7450]

=D

[@guroh6795]

I recently got one of your devlogs recommended to me and I just binged through the whole playlist. Your videos are so entaining to watch with all the little jokes and the game looks so beautiful and satisfying to play! Looking forward to next video. Cheers

[@aarthificial]

Thanks, glad you like them!

[@JackieCodes]

im mad at myself for just discovering this channel now, omg this was amazing

[@KhalidJ]

I'm so glad this was recommended to me, I totally love this. Keep up the great, wonderful work! :D

[@aarthificial]

Thank you! Will do!

[@mateuszpatua3016]

ngl, you're a genius!! so happy I discovered you at the beginning of my gamedev journey

[@KingGurke98]

It doesn't happen often that a single video gets me to click that subscribe button, but dam, this one did it! It really is an incredible discovery in a genre that I love as both a maker and a player! I can't wait to see more of what you're working on - and I suspect there are more videos waiting if I click on that channel...

[@orkbadger]

Time to subscribe, amazing job mate ! truly inspirational !

[@Jkindelb]

Just binge watched every video! Absolutely inspired and excited to see more from this journey. Time to boot up Unity again!

[@aarthificial]

Glad to hear that! Good luck with all your new projects!

[@francescobittasi]

Dude this looks soooo gooooood!!!! Always happy to see a new video from you, keep it up!

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much!!

[@ganover2756]

l'm learning so much out those dev logs, thank you

[@eboatwright_]

Wow! Your pixel art is amazing, and so is your shader coding!! Keep up the great work!

[@luke350]

The concept is genius and the execution flawless, my hat is off to you, Sir!

[@JulianTrebes]

Thats amazing! Hyped whats about to come with it next🙏🏻

[@SuperNabot01]

Looking at your work just light a flame inside my heart each time . Truly Inspiring and beautyful :)

[@gianclgar]

3:02 instant wishlist

[@VoonNBuddies]

This technique is incredible but what's more incredible is the fact that you were able to give a comprehensive breakdown of how it works in like 3 minutes!

[@sodagames4980]

Yes! I was waiting for another devlog, awesome!

[@d3.m4.r]

Your videos are amazing, keep up with the good work!

[@aarthificial]

Thank you!

[@carlos_7x]

This is so advanced for me, next-level thing. I love your videos, cheers!

[@notanimposter]

I am consistently amazed that you always seem to solve problems in ways I never would have thought of.

[@cartographercorinfer2971]

Pretty sure these are some of the best explanatory videos I have seen... Extremally niche, but still frustratingly underrated

[@tommylugaresi7431]

Hey, Thank you for making these videos. This was the video that got recommended to me, and I'm really happy about that! My brother is into game design, and I'm excited to see what he thinks of these. Thank you again!

[@garishtiger140]

WOW! This is amazing! When I saw those light shafts I was stunned!

[@aegeanviper73]

That is super cool!! I've been wanting to get back into making a game and this honestly gave me that extra push!!

[@aarthificial]

Glad to hear that!

[@tastygold]

This game looks absolutely amazing!! Art especially pixel art is what I feel always holds me back, I’m much more programming centric, so I love the technical explanations of how systems work.

[@kevingriffin3249]

I didn't know I needed this. Thank you!

[@studiogoliath8461]

This is the type of content that blows my mind. Keep it up!

[@nyx_xon]

brilliant work. looking forwards to seeing more from you.

[@saultoons]

Incredible! :D I always had this problem too

[@ohman4775]

Yoooo!! This looks sick!! I got recommended your channel by a friend of mine and I’m so glad I took their advice. Keep the good work up mate!

[@aarthificial]

That's so cool! Thank you!

[@bob-ji7ks]

absolutely brilliant video can't wait to see more

[@magdakoral2706]

Inspiring stuff you've got here! I really like your smooth terrain deforms and crisp output pixels (comment for the youtube gods, may the algorithm be forever in your favor)

[@Halloweenharen]

That's amazing! Well done

[@MEngelberts]

this videos quality alone shows me you will go places! keep the great work

[@aarthificial]

Thanks so much!